Roger Stone: is Trump making America Florida?

I I don't think anybody ever falls out permanently with Donald Trump I mean there may be one or two exceptions to that but really not I mean in his view everybody is redeemable at some point uh and um I think he and Rubio grew close during the Trump presidency because they were working together on Venezuela and on Cuba and on other issues which they're both interested hello and welcome to the Americano show I am delighted to be joined today by Roger Stone the long time longtime political consultant uh and um operator of what some call

the dark arts in American politics and he is also a Floridian resident um Roger I say that you're a resident in Florida because that's what I want to talk to you about today um is something that I'm very interested in which is the growing power of Florida on the American right uh because looking at the Trump appointment so far you have several Florida figures um taking very powerful roles you have Susie WS uh who is Chief of Staff you have Marco Rubio as Secretary of State um you have Matt Gates possibly coming in as attorney

general um you have Mike Waltz as National Security advisor from this side of the Atlantic it looks a little bit to me like a a Florida takeover am I seeing things well first of all let's kind of start with Susie Wilds I mean Susie Wilds is an enormously capable woman there was a huge amount of second guessing of her during the campaign all of it unfounded uh she has a unique relationship with the president uh those who want to say oh she's uh she she's not sufficiently con conservative or she's not a MAG I don't

really understand her history she first came to the attention of the president because she ran Rick Scott's campaign for Governor Rick Scott was an outsider businessman not the choice of the Republican establishment by any means w a smashing Victory uh that brought her to the attention of Donald Trump in 2016 she could have gone to work for Marco Rubio's presidential campaign or a guy you may not remember Jeb Bush you don't see his name too much in the news anymore uh but she chose to go to work for Ronald Reagan pardon me for Donald Trump

uh she eak out a very narrow victory in Florida here in 2016 uh it was it was much closer than I think people expected uh then she uh she went on to work for Ronda santis uh de santis uh really owes his governorship entirely to Donald Trump he was running at 8% in the polls having trouble raising money every single one of the 62 Florida Republican County chairman every Republican legislature in both houses the Speaker of the House the president of the Senate every member of the Congressional Delegation with the exception of Matt Gates had

endorsed his opponent Adam putam the agriculture commissioner who was a former Congressman uh and Donald Trump's tweeted endorsement literally catapulted this guy to the nomination now Florida politics uh including those with these news appointments are somewhat clouded uh for reasons that I don't really understand Ronda santis uh while he gave a tepid endorsement to the president really did nothing to help him win this election didn't appear at any of the Florida rallies he had a unique opportunity to kind of fix things uh but he chose not to do so now he of course assuming that

Marco Rubio who is a good friend of mine and an excellent US senator we he's very strong in this hemisphere on the question of Communism in Venezuela and Cuba our views are a little different um on some issues but I think he understands his job now is to implement Donald Trump's policies rather than his own and he's he's quite able he's a good man uh but his seat will now of course be vacated uh and Governor DeSantis will have the ability to appoint somebody to that seat now there's a lot of speculation that um that

Lara Trump would be a great Senator and she would but there's no reason whatsoever to believe that Governor DeSantis would be inclined to appoint her I think he covets this seat himself the history in America of Governors appointing themselves to Senate vacancies has a zero success rate it has never worked he could have the lieutenant governor whose name even I can't remember and I live here he could appoint her he could step down and let her become governor in which case she would appoint him voters hate that by the way they hate it they think

they should have some involvement in this process so um that's going to be very interesting to see how it plays out my guess is DeSantis will appoint a caretaker someone who will fill the balance of the term but then not run for reelection and perhaps he will run in the primary uh in in for that seat he's got a lot of great choices I mean Congressman Byron Donalds would be an excellent appointe uh Congressman Corey Mills would be an excellent appointee uh the state CFO Jimmy Patronis would be an excellent appointe he's got a lot

of great choices remains to be to to be seen what he will do uh the the appointment of Matt Gates comes out of left field I must say I'm very surprised Matt is he's kind of like me he's a fire brand he tells you what he really thinks he's more interested in getting things done than he is in making friends uh he's never tried a case in court that I know of although he's certainly an attorney and nobody can doubt his Brilliance I he's a Brant political strategist and he's a a very fine legislator uh

I'm not there there's a missing piece here for me maybe I'm just not up to date I do think his confirmation could be problematic he's very very controversial uh but Trump is committed you know this is not going to be a goal to getalong Administration it's not going to be anything like 2016 uh here's how it kind of works at least in American politics if you're an outsider As Trump still is first they try to destroy you then when they can't destroy you uh and you're elected then they try to co-opt you from the inside

uh and uh I don't think that's going to be successful this time as it was last time only because the president has uh he has a lot more knowledge now about how the system works Mike walz another excellent appointee combat veteran uh the good news is that any of these seats that are being vacated will be held by the Republicans they're all Dependable Republican districts so we have to kind of see how it plays out but yes I think there's a disproportionate number of Floridians uh also should mention that uh president Trump at least tacitly

supported Rick Scott uh in the uh contest for Senate uh Majority Leader now unfortunately that decision was made by the Republican caucus I'm afraid Senator Scott found out the hard way the difference between a caucus and a cactus you see in a cactus all the Pricks are on the outside um well there's a lot to unpack in that answer um just on the gates uh business there's some speculation that um that very loss of Scott in as Senate Majority Leader and the the elevation of John th um that Trump was reacting to that with the

gates announcement uh almost throwing Thun an early challenge do you think there might be something in that no I I I don't I don't see it that way I think that uh that that Matt was selected first of all because he has intimate knowledge of the Russian collusion hoax now the Democrats keep saying it's retribution or it's Revenge no it's Justice if if um John Brennan uh who you know clearly asked uh British uh and uh New Zealand uh and Canadian uh intelligence to begin monitoring uh Trump uh friends and allies and supporters so that

he would have deniability um why is the CIA director uh spying on Friends of the Republican candidate for president uh that's that's just the beginning the the Russian collusion hoax the claim for example that the the Russians hacked the DNC uh and that information somehow made its way to WikiLeaks is just false there's no evidence of that in my own trial the FBI admitted that they had never inspected the computer servers of the DNC uh and L and uh they relied entirely on a report from a company called crowd strikes uh the judge denied my

defense a copy of their report in in my trial but it was later Declassified and uh the president of crowd strikes uh Sean Henry who just coincidentally happened to be Robert Mueller's Deputy at the FBI admitted under oath before the house intelligence committee that his report had no such proof that there is no proof that the Russians hacked the DNC in fact uh I wanted to introduce expert testimony uh and forensic evidence which I could have Pro there was no online hack but the judge of course would not allow that so the point I guess

is that uh I do think that Matt Gates's attorney general is going to examine the role of certain highlevel government officials in the Obama Administration such as John Brennan such as James Comey such as Susan Rice as well as the actions of Adam Schiff you see unfortunately for Senator Schiff no one is above the law not even him let's go back a little bit on back onto Susie Wilds uh because what you were talking about there and her relationship with Ronda Sanz is very interesting the the kind of reporting I've read is that there was

some falling out between perhaps Casey DeSantis Ron desantis's wife and Susie Wilds um and that that breakdown between DeSantis and Wilds ended up really hurting DeSantis uh and Susie Wilds came out okay from it well first of all Susie has been very circumspect about the reason why Rona santis went out of his way he didn't just fire her he tried to destroy her I mean he he not only canel caned her uh contract working for the Republican state committee he contract he he canceled her contract working for his political action committee uh he kind he

uh canel her he persuaded uh then campaign manager Brad parscal to cancel her contract working on the president's reelection he pressured the lobbying firm that she worked for and by the way no she's never ever represented fizer or any pharmaceutical company that's a a Canard that bounces around the United States Suzie who is you know by Nature been a friend of mine for 30 years we go back to the Reagan Campaign together we we both work for Jack Kemp the legendary New York Congressman uh she's been very circumspect about that now if you go back

and look at the clippings uh there's a piece on this uh I think the Wall Street Journal that's incorrect there was no one who would stand up and defend Susie WS at the time no one however except for me uh because uh she's a woman of enormous talent and enormous Integrity uh so um yeah I do think that that gave her unique insights into the personalities of Ron and his rather overbearing and self-important wife uh and um I I think that contributed to uh his ignominious defeat uh uh in the Iowa caucuses the rest of

the presidential process let's talk about Florida more broadly or generally or in historical terms perhaps we've seen perhaps Texas have such a big influence over Washington with the bushes um do you think that's a comparable situation to what is going on now with Florida is in terms of the state exerting quite a lot of power over Washington well I think it's really important to understand that Florida didn't even essentially have a Republican party until the late 1950s this was a one-party State we had the Democrats here were obviously quite conservative the the conservative party had

two Wings it had a conservative wing and it had a liberal Wing but there really was no Republican party here until the late 50s uh I'm ready to concede now wasn't sure in 2022 uh Des santis wanted a 22o victory but I argue to you if we had not had a hurricane in the three weeks before the election uh in which Governor d santis uh was able to command all media attention and frankly to give him credit was I think very effective at moving State resources around quickly to help the state recover rebuild Bridges and

uh he did an excellent job I can't take that away from him but uh his opponent Charlie Christ who had been a republican Governor then an independent Senate candidate uh and then a Democrat Congressman one of my favorite jokes is a republican a Democrat and an independent walked into a bar and the bartender said hi Charlie anyway uh he uh you know he is a a great politician in his own right but he was depending very much on free media coverage and of course he got none because of the hurricane and de sanz's Role so

that big win I thought was an anomaly in other words I believed then that this is really a purple State it's not as reliably Republican as people may think this last election may have disproved that because Donald Trump now becomes the second Statewide candidate to carry Miami Dade County which is I still think the largest county in the state it's not first at second uh and is habitually we've done well there there's a large number of Republicans there you have to reach your goal level but the county has always gone for the Democrat candidate uh

DeSantis broke through there he carried it in the governor's race Trump carried it in this race so perhaps the state uh is uh uh is becoming more reliably Republican also um deep in roads among Hispanics now in the past that has been limited largely to Cuban Americans to some extent to Venezuelan Americans but this time Trump won among Puerto Rican Americans who are generally speaking more located in the central part of the state so I think Florida may be on its way to becoming a a red State and therefore will play a disproportionate role in

National Republican politics uh and there's something called Philip blump I think it is is the name or bump maybe who wrote uh a book called The Aftermath which is about demog the demography of Florida and how Florida looks now a bit like he anticipates America will look in 2060 you have a very large older population you have a a growing Hispanic population very significant Hispanic population you have a large African-American population uh and so therefore the fact that Trump with seems to have won this new multi-racial Coalition or formed in many ways this new multi-racial

Coalition bodess quite well one would think for the future of the American right uh I'm unfamiliar with the book um if you speak of Philip bump of the washingon post do which sounds likely well then nothing he's ever WR is true or accurate he he's a guy who told us that there was never any legitimate claim against Bill Clinton regarding ing sexual harassment or rape which I've written a a best-selling book that proves that's wrong so anyway I was talking about Philip bump I'm sorry yeah I won't mention him his name in your presence again

uh but it's quite an interesting point about the demographics is it not uh the demogra demographics are shifting and remember we have a very large number of we call snowbirds the people who moved here from the Midwest and the Northeast who disproportionately I think bring their Republican politics with them uh but also key Democrat constituencies like Jewish voters like Hispanic voters they're also moving right they're moving towards the Republican party so I think the state is on its way to being a reliably Republican state Trump only won here in 2016 but I believe two points

uh and it was far more comfortable in this most recent race he also won it in 2020 by a comfortable margin so I think we're on our way to being a red State what about about look at something like the gates family uh I don't believe they originally are from Florida are they I mean I know he was he was born in Florida but are they from Dakota originally uh that I'm uncertain of but of course Matt Gates's father was the president of the Florida State Senate which is an immensely powerful position really more powerful

certainly than the lieutenant governor uh and he's from a a largely military District in North Florida sometimes referred to as the redneck Riviera uh and uh he is unassailable in that district Kevin McCarthy tried to mount an internal party challenge to him and of course he was crushed look Matt is a fire brand he's a bit of a loner uh there's there I I think there's a plan here that I may not be clued in on uh I suspect it's because Matt has a huge amount of Courage uh and the president uh it's not Revenge

it it's it's Justice people who engaged in treasonous activity if a grand jury agrees you know they should they should face consequences Chris Matthews may remember said well Trump is going to put reporters up against a wall and shoot them that's although I could put forward some names where uh that idea might be titillating it it's not in the president's plan whatsoever uh look a campaign in which your final message uh is Trump is Hitler and everybody who's voting for him is a Nazi that's not very uplifting or inspiring that's not a message to close

a presidential campaign on I'm I'm still scratching my head about what what Barack Obama and the Democrat R were thinking in this most recent election yes and tell me about the Democratic party in Florida I mean it obviously is in Retreat uh but as you've said as you've argued uh on the last time you came on this podcast Florida still has the potential to be a purple state if handled differently yeah the Democrat Party here and I have some friends in the party uh but but they really have no bench uh and uh they they

the problem here of course is that although Florida may not be a Republican state I think it is a conservative State o overall and unfortunately conservative Democrat is an oxymoron it doesn't exist in fact moderate uh Democrats don't exist in this state so any Statewide primary unfortunately for them provide produces a candidate who's too far out of the mainstream to win Statewide uh and I think that's their largest problem you take John Morgan the very prominent uh trial attorney who's I think still nomally nominally a Democrat there always been some discussion about drafting him to

run for governor uh as a Democrat some have suggested that even he and you know he's a moderate guy but some say even he is too conservative to to win a Statewide Democrat primary he could be a self funer if he chose to be he he's a great fellow by the way a good friend of mine uh but I'm not sure somebody like John Morgan if he were to choose to run could get nominated in the Democrat Party so they have that additional problem that they their their part party PR primary process will always produce

somebody who I think is two left of center to win Statewide and uh in terms of Marco Rubio and comparing Marco Rubio his appointment to the gates appointment I shouldn't say appointment sorry his his uh uh him being picked uh and Matt Gates being picked Rubio to me and certainly you know people in British politics much more comfortable with a figure like Rubio uh they regard him as much more favorable towards NATO uh kind of on board with the way defense establishment think in DC and uh Westminster whereas someone like Gates uh really makes um

the political class the transatlantic political class if you like makes he makes them tear their hair out well the key thing of course to understand is that I think they're both very able men uh but I think they both understand that they will be carrying out the policies of Donald Trump so uh despite the fact that Rubio who's been very hard lined on communism in this hemisphere in Venezuela and Cuba and so on worked very closely with President Trump during his term on those issues is a bit more uh might be view as a bit

more of a neocon uh but I I don't think that matters Donald Trump is going to control policy in his administration uh and I think he is avoiding the appointment of cabinet members and others who think that they're real J is to dilute or slow down or derail the America First agenda so I think uh Marco Rubio and the president have an excellent uh uh relationship uh in my own case uh when my wife was diagnosed with stage four cancer uh Senator Rubio's office was extraordinarily helpful to us in terms of uh getting her access

to a uh to an experimental program at ni H which I think may have saved her life uh he's been very helpful to me just on constituent service matters when things get tangled in bureaucracy nothing controversial or improper of course but he's an excellent Senator he's very popular I think he's going to do a great job for the president but he understands who's in charge you didn't have this in the last Administration that's why you got people like uh General John Kelly who claims that the president praised Hitler but he suddenly remembered it two weeks

before the election and there are no Witnesses seems leads me to believe that it never actually happened of course uh and or HR McMaster these guys told people that you know that their job was to slow Trump down delude his agenda look joh Donald Trump who I've known for 45 years he's his own man nobody tells him who he can see and who he can't see who he can call and who he can't call uh who he can who he can who he can appoint who we cannot appoint he's you know he's he's not a

politician there's no other way to put it he's he's the head of a political movement but he's not a politician he'll never be a politician he's he's inquisitive you know he works the phone like lynon Johnson I mean he's he's soliciting advice for many many many people not doesn't me doesn't always take all of their advice makes his own decisions but he it's not it's not for lack of input I mean he he gets a lot of input from a lot of people those who are smart are smart enough to not to say oh the

president called me and asked me about X Y and Z uh but um you know he he very much his own man Rubio understands that Rubio is going to do a very able job for the president but he's going to be representing the president's policies not his policies um it also suggests does it not that Donald Trump is uh quite willing to forgive and forget because there there could be no denying can there that the in 2016 the animosity between Trump and Rubio was intense and real or am I over reading that does Trump actually

just regard this as just part and parcel of public politics no look I actually think you've hit it on the head I I don't think anybody ever falls out permanently with Donald Trump I mean there may be one or two exceptions to that but really not I mean in his view everybody is redeemable at some point uh and um I think he and Rubio grew close during the Trump presidency because they were working together on Venezuela and on Cuba and on other issues in which they're both interested uh I don't I mean I know a

little bit about politics I don't understand why Governor DeSantis who owes his governorship to Donald Trump and if he weren't if for wer for Donald Trump Ronda sis would be managing a McDonald someplace here today and not sure he could handle that but uh he owes his governorship to Donald Trump okay so he ran against him so be it but he had ample opportunity to repair that he could have hit the road and campaigned hard for Donald Trump we had there was a great rally uh in Dural early in the campaign I was there the

president called me out publicly which I was very proud of uh he didn't show up why would would you not repair your relationships uh he kind of it's It's kind of vexing because Trump has no permanent enemies well other than maybe Adam Schiff uh and anybody uh who understands him understands that he's he's reasonable and sure he falls out with people from time to time but generally speaking everybody can be redeemed as long as you treat him fairly uh so I don't I think they built a great relationship of Marco and and the president that's

an interesting point about Ronda santis uh I mean what is his long-term thinking now do you think he thinks perhaps a trump second Administration Flames out and he can come back and say I was the sensible Choice all along it's it's hard to know what he's thinking I mean I just it's very difficult to understand why he didn't campaign actively uh for the president he he could I mean the president was gracious enough to let him speak at the convention didn't even have to do that uh I would have to say that the governor's speech

was most unmemorable uh but still the president I thought you know reached out the Olive Branch let him speak I don't know of uh of any campaign appearances he made president campaigned in Florida uh but the governor never showed up and I don't think ever expressed expressed a desire to show up uh a smart politician would have fixed this uh and and he did not do so so I I don't know what's on his mind or more precisely what's on his wife's mind because well frankly I think she's making most of the decisions on that

note we will end it there Roger Stone but thank you very much for coming on to the Americano podcast uh it's always a pleasure to have you on for